Contactless payment sees growing popularity

27 February, 2009

Page 10

Subway is the latest high street bakery retailer to offer shoppers a speedy way to pay for snacks and sandwiches.

It is trialling a new payment system in some of its stores that enables people to buy items for less than £10 by touching their credit card against a sensor, without having to take it out of their wallet or enter a PIN number. A Subway spokeswoman said: "We're looking at it and hoping to roll it out later this year."

Pret A Manger, Coffee Republic, Krispy Kreme and EAT stores already allow payments with Barclaycard's contactless payment system - OnePulse - and the card company reports that other firms including some "extremely well-known names" in the sector are set to join up later this year. Pret A Manger recently announced it would launch the card system across its whole portfolio by April after a successful seven-store trial in London.

All newly issued Barclaycard Platinum cards now include contactless technology and more than 1 million contactless cards have already been issued. A Barclaycard spokesman said the card was a particular hit with retailers offering food and drink to go: "It's very useful when retailers are taking a lot of transactions, such as during the morning rush and lunch hour, but it's not just the big companies who can benefit - size shouldn't matter."

He added that the card was proving increasingly popular with consumers: "People don't use new things from the word go but we're starting to see more take-up."

l The Post Office's latest Consumer Credit Report reveals 10 million people intend to use their credit card in the first half of the year for daily purchases such as grocery shopping, with a trend for many to rely on their cards for basic day-to-day purchases.